Having been on the mat for nearly two days and a half, Dinesh Karthik’s quickfire century and Rahil Shah’s three quick wickets gave Tamil Nadu a slim hope of an unlikely victory on the final day of its clash against Madhya Pradesh here on Wednesday.
Chasing 181 for victory, MP found itself down 30 for four but managed to hang in and force a draw, thanks to Naman Ojha and skipper Devendra Bundela, who saw out the remaining overs.
Resuming at 152 for three, still 32 runs behind after being asked to follow on, Karthik and B. Indrajith took the attack to the MP spinners, putting on 186 runs for the fourth wicket.
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Karthik reached his 20th First Class ton off just 89 balls capitalising on some ordinary bowling from the visitors.
Karthik had enjoyed an early ‘life’ on the third day when on five: a mistimed pull lobbed over to short-midwicket, but the catch was dropped after bowler Jalaj Saxena and Anandsingh Bais ended up colliding with each other.
Confusing tacticsADVERTISEMENT
On a fourth-day wicket that had much in it for the spinners, MP’s tactics were confusing. A spread field allowed Karthik and Indrajith to rotate strike easily.
Earlier in the first session, Tamil Nadu was penalised five runs — added to MP’s first-innings total — after Karthik repeatedly ran on the wicket while batting.
The scores: Madhya Pradesh — 1st innings: 432
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 248
Tamil Nadu — 2nd innings: K. Bharath Shankar c Ojha b Ankit 45 (68b, 5x4, 1x6) , Abhinav Mukund c Bundela b Saxena 48 (90b, 4x4) , B. Aparajith c Mohnish b Ankit 33 (62b, 2x4, 1x6) , Dinesh Karthik c Harpreet b Saxena 129 (115b, 12x4, 3x6) , B. Indrajith c Ankit b Jain 63 (108b, 1x6, 1x4), R. Prasanna c Ankit b Saxena 14 (25b) , R. Malolan c Rameez b Jain 10 (12b, 1x6) , U. Sushil b Jain 17 (17b, 1x4) , L. Balaji c Mohnish b Jain 1 (4b) , Rahil Shah c Bundela b Jain 0 (2b) , R. Aushik Srinivas (not out) 0 (3b), Extras (b-1, lb-7, nb-1) 9; Total (in 84.1 overs) 369.
Fall of wickets: 1-80, 2-128, 3-135, 4-321, 5-332, 6-346, 7-360, 8-362, 9-362.
MP bowling: Ankit Sharma 26-1-129-2, Jalaj Saxena 28-3-109-3, Rameez Khan 5-0-32-0, Saransh Jain 15.1-3-50-5, Puneet 8-2-30-0, Sanjay Mishra 2-0-10-0.
Madhya Pradesh — 2nd innings: Sanjay Mishra c Aparajith b Shah 0 (1b) , Jalaj Saxena c Malolan b Shah 13 (43b, 2x4) , Harpreet Singh c Aushik Srinivas b Shah 8 (12b, 1x4) , Mohnish Mishra c Abhinav b Aushik Srinivas 8 (33b) , Naman Ojha (not out) 59 (103b, 8x4, 2x6) , Devendra Bundela (not out) 16 (90b, 1x4), Extras (b-8) 8; Total (for four wickets in 47 overs) 112.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-10, 3-29, 4-30.
TN bowling: Rahil Shah 22-7-32-3, R. Malolan 14-4-45-0, Aushik Srinivas 9-4-15-1, L. Balaji 1-1-0-0, B. Aparajith 1-0-12-0.